Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1887-06-16
THE REBEL FLAGS.

President Cleveland has put it very
mildly in ordering the return of captured
rebel flags to the States from which the
troops bearing them hailed, when he
speaks of the rebel forces as State volun-
teers," or volunteers of the States"
They were not State volunteers; no
State in the lawful exercise of its sover-
eign right called for, or could call for,
volunteers to resist the Government of
the United States
Was the President fearful of offending
the sensibilities of Southern chivalry, that
he had not even the courage to speak of
rebel troops as " Confederates ?" Certainly
he might have avoided some measure of
shap criticism by such discreet phrasing
of his order.
But concerning the act of returning the
flags, it is easy to understand with what in
dignation Union veterans learn of the order
which President Cleveland declares it is
pleasant duty" to make. These trophies
of the late war do not stand for any senti-
ment OF antagonism entertained at this
day. They do not represent hatred or i'll
will, nor typify any exultation by the SOL
diers of the Union over fallen foes. But
they do stand for the valor of the Union
soldiery they do preach to the genera
lions of heroic deeds, and terrible conflicts
OF arms in internecine combat, in which
loyalty to the Union was triumphant over
rebellion. They stand as witnesses to the
heroism Of the men who went down into
the pit Of war, and poured out tn cir
life-blood that the institutions of free gov
eminent might be preserved, and the
Union Of States be maintained. To the
people of the era and the coming ages they
would testify to the patriotism that drew
sword against a rebellion born of human
slavery
10 remove such trophies from historic
walls under the pitiful plea that it cements
the Union by blotting out the testimonies
OF the late war, is to declare, in effect, that
1t were better the monuments to our heroes
should be leveled 70 the ground and every
page of the history of the most cruel and
indefensibe OF rebellions should be
whelmed in the flames of consuming
shame, that a Democratic Administration
may make itself solid in advance with a
solid South
by what right has Mr.. Cleveland en-
tered upon this blotting-out process?
Where does he gain the power to remove
from the walls of the National Capitol
trophies Of war placed there by direct Act
of Congress? BY statute passed in due
form, the captured rebel flags were received
by Congress and given into the custody of
the Secretary of War. By like action
only can he lawfully dispossess himself of
them.
1t Is possible that in the far future
generations to be born will be told that
once upon a time there were stars and
bars, and eolors borne in the fore front of
rebellion against the srandest republic of
history, and that valiant men who barred
their breasts to the wild fury of wars awful
storm 10 save the noble heritage of free
men from sack and pillage by rebels; that
these heroes did seize upon the Haunted
emblems Of rebellion and wrench them
from the hands that bore them against the
Union, but that the trophies of such hero
ism have been torn from the national halls.
and returned to the men from whom the
nations heroes wrested them, and that this
was done to blot out, as far as possible, all
testimony of the bloody days when the
homes Of the Union placed the frst-born
upon the affairs OF the nation, as an offering
to the genius Of American independence
and the indissoluble union of sovereign
States.
II this IS to be the future of history; if
the children yet unborn are not to gaze
upon the evidences of the vaIor of their
progenitors; if they are to know of the
peril from which heroisIn snatched the
nation from rebellion only by dim tradi-
iions; the Democratic Administration Of
Mr.. President Cleveland will have such
honor as attaches to the humiliation.
No loyal man desires to keep alive the
memories Of the war to provoke and pain
our brethren of the South; but no loyal
man desires the war to be 50 far forgotten
that after ages shall dispute the patriotism
that rescued the nation from the direst
peril that ever threatened its integrity.
We may forgive; the nation has forgiven;
the boys in blue have opened their